Annan Athletic 1 East Stirlingshire 3

East Stirlingshire yesterday won their first match in eight when they defeated promotion play-off hopefuls Annan Athleltic 3-1 at Galabank.

The Shire team selection included defender Ross Gilmour, recently recovered from a broken bone in his foot and playing in only his ninth game of the season, and there were other enforced changes due to the risk of one or two players picking up bookings and being ruled out of the pyramid play-offs.

Shire began well, kept possession, and took the game to Annan. The promising start was consolidated in the twenty-first minute when Max Wright hit a superbly executed quick shot from twenty yards out and it went in off the post.

In the fortieth minute the goal-scorer was sent off for a two-footed tackle, which was deemed to be reckless by the referee. Those with Shire affiliations felt that Wright hadn’t connected with Annan’s Rabin Omar and were expecting a yellow card. Wright is now ruled out of the remaining two fixtures.

Ten-man Shire retained their narrow lead until half-time but faced an extremely testing second half.

In the early stages of the second half, with Shire sitting back and playing only one up front, Annan took off defender Peter Watson in the fifty-third minute and brought on another forward, Smart Osadolor, who scored the equaliser seven minutes later when he converted Josh Todd's cross.

Some Shire heads went down a bit at this turn of events but keeper Darren Dolan gave a man of the match performance and made string of good saves before East Stirlingshire regained the lead from a set piece, with second half substitute Kris Faulds scoring low from close range in the seventy-eighth minute.

Shire scored a third goal in the eighty-second minute when a high bouncing ball was headed over the Annan keeper by Gavin McMillan from eighteen yards to make it 3-1. The Shire then held out for a victory that few expected after Max Wright’s first half dismissal.